Rapid Reaction: Orlando Magic 102, Denver Nuggets 89

Gallo was about the only player on the Nuggets roster who was looking to be aggressive. He also made an effort to play hard, which can’t be said for most of his teammates. This is the type of Gallo the Nuggets need in order to be a real threat in the West.

What the hell is going on with Faried? For the second game in a row he played more of a complimentary role than that of the starter he truly is. His head is down. He’s not even trying to rebound. Something is clearly going on between the ears because this is not the fun-loving, energetic Faried we’ve come to know.

Kosta Koufos, C27 MIN | 3-6 FG | 1-3 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 7 PTS | +8

Koufos was just kind of there tonight. He didn’t make his presence known at all, especially on the glass like we’ve become accustomed to in the preseason. If he’s going to play this much he needs to turn up his level of aggressiveness in a major way.

Ty Lawson, PG38 MIN | 6-15 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 7 AST | 12 PTS | -13

The energy was there tonight for Lawson. He was trying to make things happen; they just weren’t. There’s a certain amount of blame that should be put on his shoulders, but at this point, it’s nothing compared to what his teammates need to be shouldering.

I’m a little bit confused as to what Iguodala’s role is on this team right now. People were so excited about landing him, but the fact is, Denver’s most pressing need has always been a top dog who can get buckets when the chips are down — which is perhaps why Al Harrington had such a successful season last year. Iguodala just isn’t that type of guy, which is a bit disconcerting if you ask me.

Corey Brewer: Great energy guy; not a great leading-role type of guy. The reason he bounced around so much after being drafted as a top 10 player in Minnesota is because his role has always been in question. But after winning a title with the Mavericks it became clear: great energy guy; not a great leading-role guy. Karl’s trying to make him the latter. Enough said.

I do not know why Jordan Hamilton isn’t seeing more time. I really don’t. Is there a reason? Is it just because he’s young? The only thing I can think of is that he’s sometimes a little reckless with his shot attempts. But at this point, he’s the perfect remedy for what the Nuggets are missing. Even if he takes several bad shots, at least he’ll be out there trying to make things happen. Plus, is there any doubt he won’t get at least 15 points if you give him ample playing time?

JaVale McGee, C11 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 4 PTS | -9

Another dumbfounding stat line, highlighted mostly by the 11 minutes played number. You can’t do anything in 11 minutes. It was the same story last game when Hamilton started buy only played a little over 10 minutes. It’s just not enough time to do anything.

Chandler is not playing in the flow of the offense right now. He’s lost. He doesn’t know when to attack and where, or how, for that matter. Everything he’s doing is off. In time he will improve but until then he should step it up on defense to make up for his wavering offensive skills.

Evan Fournier, SG7 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -3

Again, can’t say much here. It would have been nice to see him knock down a shot but he was playing in garbage time anyways.

Three Things We Saw

Mo Players Mo Problems: About halfway through the game it became clear to me that George Karl is completely at a “loss” with the amount of players he has. He doesn’t know who should play with who, when to go small, when to go big — and it’s mostly because he just has too many options. Perhaps no sport emphasizes hierarchy the way the NBA does, and yet, the Nuggets have none. This entire team is composed of guys who, if given 35 minutes per game, would average anywhere between 12 and 17 points. Nobody is really that much better than the next guy ahead of or behind him. It’s just one giant collection of good, but not great, players.

Piece the Puzzle Together: George Karl has a lot of talented (but not great!) players on his roster and its his job to figure out how to use them best. That’s what he gets payed for. Playing Faried and McGee a combined 31 minutes and Koufos 27 is just not a recipe for winning basketball no matter how you slice it. Corey Brewer has proven he deserves minutes, but not the fourth most on the team! If you’re going to spend two games messing with lineups, then mess with lineups!!! Give Jordan Hamilton a chance to prove himself. Same goes for Anthony Randolph. And play bigs with other bigs! Why is it that Koufos and McGee can’t see the floor at the same time? Above all else: Play your best players together! Faried, McGee, Gallo, Ty and Iguodala should be seeing the most amount of court time, period; but also the most amount of court time together, as the one unit. At this point, I’m not sure if that combination of players has even seen one minute of action together!

It’s Not What You Do, It’s How You Do It: I’ve always said that there are multiple levels to losing. Right now, it’s not the fact that the Nuggets have lost their first two games that’s upsetting, it’s HOW they’ve lost them. They have had two golden opportunities (one against the Sixers without their best player and one against a team projected to be the worst in basketball this year) to start the season off on a good note and have completely taken them for granted. Last year all we heard was how the Nuggets needed a real training camp. But a year later, with a full training camp, what’s the difference? How the hell does a team with this much talent come out and play this bad? What’s the excuse this time? I’m not overreacting to two losses — no way. I’m just legitimately curious as to how a team with so much time to prepare has come out this flat, this disinterested, this lackadaisical, this… just plain bad. It doesn’t make any sense. None at all.

Kalen Deremo

Kalen was born in Durango, CO, in 1988 and graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2013 with a degree in journalism. He's now an itinerant hoping to travel as much as possible before eventually succumbing to the "real world." Aside from writing Kalen likes movies, music, spicy food and the great outdoors. Edward Abbey is his current idol.

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The team lacks play makers right now. And the bigs are getting outplayed. Ty cant do it all. Nice to see Gallo in this game at least, he will be huge to this team getting rolling. So much for the great defense against the Sixers. If you cant score yourselves, defense can only get you so far. This isn’t soccer. Or is it?

Neal

When the coach doesn’t care, the team will reach that point eventually as well.

GK4Prez

Koufos is a big part of the problem, he can’t protect the rim on defense, and he can’t catch/finish in traffic on offense. He is a good backup center, but he is a liability playing the minutes he is playing.

Matt

Couldn’t agree more with the end of this article. I’m just…lost. I have no idea what we’re watching or what they’re doing, but it’s bad. They look over-matched inside, they can’t shoot from the outside. I don’t get it.

dynamo.joe

I think the problem is less that they can’t shoot from outside and more that they won’t. They have passed up a lot of open 3’s. It’s almost like they are afraid to take them.

Aaron

bottom line. . .we look awful. And, yes. . what the what were doing during training camp? It looks like we haven’t practiced.

We’re losing tomorrow, but here’s hoping we can come home and right the ship in a hyped home opener. This doesn’t really have to do with minutes and lineups. . I think you guys are focusing too much on that. We lack effort at every position and don’t look prepared for what the other teams are doing. This is coaching and motivation plain and simple. We need some leaders on the floor to call guys out. . . Ty? Andre M? come on guys. .

Terry

It’s past time, fire George Karl

Kyle Obergfell

I second that.

Thomas

Agreed. Let’s not waste any more time.

Great game summary and grades, although giving Andre an A is too much.

Ryan

This might be the first time a team has quit on its coach before the season even started lol… Even if they haven’t quit on GK, the front office might have to soon. We’re not paying McGee $11M per year to play 11 minutes. We don’t buy tickets to see Corey Brewer and Koufos play 30 minutes a game. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both valuable bench players, but come on. On top of the lack of cohesion is the tiny little problem that you have to, well, MAKE BASKETS to win. Two straight games shooting under 40% with a completely inept half-court offense. Not even the Karlites can find an excuse why some semblance of a rotation wasn’t hammered out in training camp/preseason games. It’s just hard as a fan to watch your favorite professional sports team play this way while being horribly mismanaged by inept coaching. Arrrggghhh!!!

Kyle Obergfell

spot on Ryan. I feel every word you said.

No sense of urgency, and I have this memory
of a very sluggish sputter last year.. kind of
characterized by getting our ass kicked in the
1st quarter..

We gave up 31 after 1 quarter.

That’s something to do with coaching.
I don’t care what anyone says.

SmokinNugs

This was ugly. That is all I have to say

Legalize Denver Nuggets

You have to wonder what this team was even working on in training camp. I haven’t seen cohesion, effort, or any semblance of GK caring about that. This is frustrating, but here’s to hoping we figure it out soon!

Everyone is very high on hamilton on this site. I haven’t made up my mind yet. BUT I WANT TO EFFING BE ABLE TO MAKE AN OPINION! The way GK is playing him can’t be good for his confidence. I feel sorry for the dude.

I put the date in there, because this board is dead and old stories from 2 months ago are at the top.

Through 2 games it looks like we never even had a training camp, we just go out there and run around hoping for the best. Our shooting is abysmal, we pass up good shots for a pass that end up being a drive kick, drive kick, drive turnover. Our players look totally lost out there and no one knows their role. As a whole we just look like we have no coaching at all. I don’t think George is a bad coach, it seems like after players leave Denver they end up worse, but man we look bad.

I don’t understand why we paid McGee 10 million a year to come off the bench when he is a rhythm player. The more he plays the more comfortable he gets and then he can and will completely dominate!

Faried looks lost too, I think the lineups are in desperate need of adjustment. I thought Anthony Randolph looked good in preseason we should start him and have Kenneth off the bench as the energy guy he was last year, playing him and McGee together is too little offense too much rebounding they knock into each other and try to out rebound themselves.

Miller can feed a posting Koufus since Ty has no clue how to set up a post pass, Faried can run off of Miller lobs, Miller would be our primary offense and kick to Iggy and Brewer. That is a moving team and if they are having issues scoring we can sub Gallo back in quickly. At least everyone would know their role.

These last 2 games have been absolutely pathetic to watch…

Evan Woodruff

Their offence sucks…

Aaron

That’s What Happens.

Coach That Couldn’t Care Less = Players That Couldn’t Care Less!

= New Coach?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Kyle Obergfell

I am with everyone else.. panicking a little after an 0-2
and possible 0-3 start.

The reason for me… inconsistency.

Nuggets are so capable of blowing any team off the
floor… but this is a young team. I’m getting the feeling
that George Karl has lost respect.

There seems to often be a schizophrenic dichotomy of
his temperament towards these young players.
Overcompensation or something.. he’s not inspiring and
he’s not even connecting.

It is too early to panic.. but I was also buying
the hype like ESPN putting us in the championship
series.

Ryan

As Kalen alluded to, one of the main issues is that no one knows their role. No one knows if they’re going to start, come off the bench, or not play at all. It’s hard to find any continuity when no one knows who they will be playing with, how long they will be on the floor, or if they’ll end up in the doghouse after a bad play and not see the floor again. Once everyone knows their roles, they can work to be the best they can be at that role. That falls on the head coach to communicate with players and give them some semblance as to how they fit in on the team. Instead, Karl plays head games with them (e.g. 3 minutes for Hamilton, 11 minutes for McGee) and will likely lose the team if this continues. It’s not rocket science, just have a general dichotomy of who will play when and make minor adjustments based on game-by-game situations.

There is a problem with chemistry.
Nobody can deny that coaching has to
catalyze this..GK isn’t getting it done.

GK4Prez

The Magic have 10 new players on their roster and they played team ball, so the Nuggets can’t really use that as an excuse tonight.

I am still scratching my head at the complete change over in the rotation from quarter to quarter, the team cut it to 10 at the end of 3 and GK goes with 4 different players to start the 4th, why? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Start using the timeouts to benefit the lineup, so they can stay on the floor longer. Call a timeout at the end of the 3rd and again at the start of the 4th and go with the lineup that got you back in the game or sub in a guy at a time instead of an entire rotation at a time.

GK has always had a few veterans to help him out in games, especially late in games, but he really only has one vet that he trusts on this team. He is going to have to actually coach to get wins this year.

Thomas

Well said, the line- up change at the start of the 4th was one of the dumbest GK moves ever.

Trevor

George Karl looks like he doesn’t even care, he just sits on the bench and never gets up like he used to. He is getting out coached and is putting together some weird lineups on the court. I think its time for a new voice in the Nuggets locker room. Time will tell I guess. I just thought the Nuggets would have things straightened out since they actually did have a full training camp and preseason this year. Other teams with new players are figuring it out just fine, to me that is all on the coach.

ionic66

Wow, just like last season you guys are at Karl’s throat. It is the second game of the season. Calm down, you sound like an angry lynch mob with no understanding. Both current and past players have mentioned Karl as one of the coaches they would most like to play for. He has the wins too. I’m sick of the hate. 9 straight postseasons, consistent 50 win seasons. Chill out

Kyle Obergfell

how many playoff advances past the first round?

JetLife82

Nice recap Kalen. I am especially concerned with Faried’s performance also, the only bright spot being his low salary. But when a player is starting games, struggling to make any impact whatsoever and constantly getting bullied on defense I start to think some serious questions need to be raised. I would be reluctant to trade Manimal after his rookie season but sometimes you have to get a good return when their stocks are up. If he doesn’t get into decent form in the next few games, here is a trade I would like to see go down, minus any added picks. Of course if GK gets his shit together and finds roles for key players, we won’t even need to consider a trade.

Brewer could even be swapped with Moz in this trade scenario as they are of similar value and price, although the Nuggets would probably benefit from keeping Moz over Brew due to the current lack of minutes for wing players.

I really hope we don’t need to make any changes, but ultimately I would rather see the team win even if it meant getting rid of guys like Faried and Brewer. Let me know what you think.

OriginalJakeSauce

That’s a terrible trade for us. Trades should clearly upgrade the team… Not make then worse.

Find a way to keep manimal, and procure a steady scoring threat at tne 4. Then we can talk. Guys like Josh Smith or Lamarcus Aldridge. Someone comfortable taking the big shot, someone with a steady offensive game. We need an Al Harrington

Greg

I say we just trade Brewer for Al, straight up. The magic need a SF now that Turkoglu got hurt last night

JetLife82

I wouldn’t say that Josh Smith is a better scorer than Thad Young. Plus I would rather have Moe Harkless at the SF over Chandler or Brewer. I do not see how this trade would make the team worse than they look right now. If your referring to the loss of Faried, fair enough. I just think that he will be more of a charismatic role player than a solid starting PF, one of which we will need while waiting for McGee to develop. Just my opinion.

http://yahoo mile high

The problem is that we don’t hv good consistent shooters (apart from Gallo but even he is inconsistent) who can be counted on to score from outside when needed and create the spacing we need to get our game going. Iggy might be a good player but he is not a good shooter at all and to get him by sending away 2 of our most reliable shooters from last year was a big mistake.

Also, since all the player know themselves that they are not good shooters, they are deferring until the last second before whoever’s unlucky enough to hv the ball in their hands will then hv to throw a prayer up.

To right the ship, we either hv to acquire a pure shooter quick or we should focus on defending and making stops so that we can start running and getting easy shots. To hope that we can hv a good half-court offence without shooters is a futile exercise and to think that we can do better by giving McGee 30 minutes per game is day-dreaming.

CJP32

I think the starting 5 needs a shake up already. Both games so far we are starting off slow and trying to fight back. Today down 18-9, yesterday down 12-6. We have had long spurts of bad shots, turnovers and bad defense.

Iggy looks totally lost, 35 mpg and he scoring 10 pts on 35% FGs??? Faried has looked bad since pre season. Whilst Koufos has been a surprise, he’s not the answer in the middle. Ty at times looks aggressive, then complacent. Brewer is forcing shots, but thats because the 2nd Unit is flat. Chandler is not game ready and Andre Miller thinks he is a scorer now – 10/23 FGs.

Chandler won’t likely play due to hip, so JHam gets extra minutes. Faried can be the energy guy off the bench alongside Miller and Koufos.

Its only 2 games, no need to panic, but its clear that the starting 5 is not getting the job done early.

Henry

Again, just like Wednesday night, League Pass viewing tonight revealed many other teams looking coherent and ready to play. The Nuggets look strangely lost.

How can the players get into any rhythm at all with such ostensibly random substitutions? How can any confidence be developed? What is George Karl doing?

Losses are to be expected with a young team that is incorporating new faces. Losing isn’t the issue here. There’s just nothing going on that makes sense on the court. The players don’t seem to know how to approach the game. They barely look like an NBA basketball team compared to many others, even those who have way more new faces than the Nuggets.

Wonder what Ujiri and Kroenke think? Wonder what the assistant coached think? Secretly, I mean. I bet it’s ugly.

Henry

*assistant coaches

Señor Chang

Blow it up. I know it’s ridiculously early but it’s impossible to win with a bunch of nice players and no good ones. Trade iguodala, gallo, Wilson, miller, javale, koufos all for young guys and draft picks. Go get shabazz Muhammad or nerlens noel and be bad for one more year and get Patrick wiggins or Jabari Parker. Then move on with Lawson, manimal, Fournier, Quincy miller, Hamilton, stone, Noel and Parker for example

I’m joking a little bit but I have skeptical that this sort of team could ever seriously go far in the playoffs. We will still be a top 6 seed but we won’t go past the 2nd round at best.

I reckon if we keep this team together, we should target the wizards as a trade partner around the draft. Try and get beal or their 1st rounder

Greg

The wizards wouldn’t bite on a deal that involves Beal… I think someone maybe like a Ben Gordon or Rip Hamilton or Marcus Thornton from Sacramento would be more realistic.

Ban Johnson

Nuggets haven’t been ready to play. It’s only 2 games, but it’s still inexcusable. It costs a lot of money to watch these guys play, and right now they aren’t even close to worth it. A couple more efforts like this, and I guarantee the market on flash seats will crash. Denver isn’t a big enough or rich enough town to support losers forever.

Karl has proven he’s a good coach over his career, but it’s possible he’s just dead wrong for this particular team, or he’s just burned out as a coach. We’ll see. He needs to start being decisive and start trusting the most talented guys. A team without a natural alpha dog needs the coach to be the alpha dog — a benign alpha dog who 1) inspires trust and confidence, and 2) makes the hard decisions about rotations.

Nuggets have looked good for 2 short stretches this season, both smallball, with aggressive trapping defense…In both cases, guys were just playing, with instinct and flow. It’s pretty clear that the coaches have Faried and McGee confused and lacking confidence right now. It’s on Faried and McGee, but it’s on the coaching too.

JJ Shook

I know its early in the season but I would like to propose a trade. George Karl to the Lakers for Mike Brown strait up. Can we do that? I really think it would benefit both teams.

Roundball Bill

A C+ is too generous for Chandler. Watching the game I thought he looked like he was struggling more than anyone else on the court. He’s just been a disaster offensively. He turns the ball over, forces bad shots, and misses easy ones. While that can be said for pretty much the whole team at this point, I feel like Chandler’s had it worse than everyone else.

Kyle Obergfell

I’m going to agree with you there and add on…

When we cleared cap room in the Nene trade..
I was excited, like most Nuggets fans, that we
had an ace in the hole.. a solid starter in Chandler.

Wow. BUST.

Nugget fan from Brazil

2 comments:

First, how can you give Gallo an A- when he shot 5-14, that’s just not going to give you a starting position on any team in the league plain and simple. Yeah he was the best Nugget on the court but that doesn’t account for anything when his team as a whole was dismal in all aspects of the game.

Second, they are on the road and playing two playoff caliber teams from last year, one of which being the Heat. I’d like to see how these games would have gone if they had plaid in Denver. Nobody wants to start the season on the road let alone against the teams that the Nuggets are facing. That said, the style of the Nuggets game has to be imposing, if it’s not the teams already know what the nuggets are going to do. The word is out, “They’re going to run at you and go for the rim.” Protect the rim and without shots going in from outside the paint you’re going to dominate them. Without the jump shots going in the Nuggets are probably always going to lose. That’s what was great with Aaron and Al, they’re shooters, outside shot makers and now they’re gone. Answer, no matter what, you have to play your best shooters and unfortunately right now that looks like it might be Fournier and Hamilton. They spread the floor and open up the lane for the guys that are best around the rim. I almost feel like Karl is toying with us just so that all the hype around the nuggets will disappear. Then the guys will start playing like they really are which is just average. Get those shooters on the floor, who cares if they’re young. Without that variable working the Nuggets won’t be able to accomplish anything.

http://yahoo prospector

The problem with this team is George Karl… He preaches defense, and rewards his “perceived offense threats”… Karied is amazing, just give him time… When you punish young players every time they make a mistake, you take their edge away.. Manimal is so worried about making mistakes, it is causing him to think instead of going with the flow of the game.. How can he get excited when he is one bad play away from the doghouse? That is how you ruin young players.. Same with hamilton…. But if you’re a EURO like Evan, you can get beat on defense and take crappy shots and get rewarded with more playing time. Holy mixed messages Batman.. Iggy & Chandler to me flat out suck.. Over paid, over hyped.. I would start with those guys on the trade block… We need a spot up 3 point shooter ASAP.. We need Karl is freakin let Faried play a consistent 30 mins.. We need a rotation where play know their roles. Less Brewer/Chandler more Hamilton.. Jham can rebound, let him grow… In the NBA most coached today suck, but I agree that some coaches get stale when they are with the same organization for a number of years… I love our VP… Time for him to make a move and save our season.. How did Faried get discovered??? It took a Nene injury to get Karl to leave him on the floor.. Watch tape from last year.. The games we had the most success was when Faried played his biggest minutes.. One of our best comebacks last season, was when Karl gave up and let Hamilton/stone/Faried play us back into the game.. Look at the data from last season, games in the 2nd half of the season where Miller/Harrington got big minutes w/Faried getting limited minutes are games we got beat in…. I am sick of Karl, and I know he is going to reduce Faried into being a Birdman type 15 min sideshow.. Jham will be banished to the bench… And Evan will get his EURO 15 mins a game… This sucks!!!!

Nuggs2013

I noticed that with Faried as well. I think that when Jordan Hamilton does play he is also so afraid to make mistakes that he becomes petrified. Its ridiculous because George judges the young guys so closely and lets “his guys” do whatever they want.

Nuggs2013

When I was reading this it felt like I was reading something I wrote! Great article. Play the bigs together and give Jordan Hamilton and Anthony Randolph some solid minutes!!

RAM9200

Is it just me or are the Nuggets actually attempting to play a half court offense? There certaintly not trying to run?

Looks at the percentage charts or the points/shot chart. What you see is all three of the guys can shoot from long range and can cover the entire perimeter. There is some overlap between Ty and Gallo’s preferred spots, but there is no reason these guys can’t spread the floor and open up the paint.

There is no reason why 2 of Faried/Koufos/McGee can’t be on the floor at all times.

As for the subs, Hamilton can shoot anything but corner 3’s and Chandler/Brewer can hit corner 3’s and not much else from distance.